So I have a small confession to make: despite being an entertainment editor, I am a philistine (that is, someone who is so uncultured, it’s barbaric). My main reasoning for this is the fact that I have never, ever, in my 16 years of life, watched an award show—be that the Grammys, the Oscars, or even the Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards. In this pop culture phenomenon, I am wholly deficient.

To this deficiency I say, no time like the present! It’s time for me to face the music and watch some award shows. And that is what I did—for the Grammys, at least.

From what I gleaned while researching the award show, there are four major awards, aptly called the “Big Four”: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. Below are my reactions to each of the Big Four, as well as some miscellaneous notes from other aspects on “Music’s Biggest Night” of the year.

 

Album of the Year

The Album of the Year is given to the singer, featured singers, and their entire production team for an album. This year’s nominations included “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” by Bad Bunny; “SWAG” by Justin Bieber; “Man’s Best Friend” by Sabrina Carpenter; “Let God Sort Em Out” by Clips, Pusha T, and Malice; “MAYHEM” by Lady Gaga; “GNX” by Kendrick Lamar; “MUTT” by Leon Thomas; and “CHROMAKOPIA” by Tyler, The Creator.

Honestly, of the ones that I have listened to, none of these albums stood out to me that much. Sure, as an avid Sabrina Carpenter fan, I had listened to “Man’s Best Friend,” but I felt like the album, while great, was missing something. “SWAG” was not for me, either. “GNX” had some good songs, but I’m not sure if it was entirely groundbreaking. 

In the end, Bad Bunny eventually won album of the year. To be perfectly honest, I haven’t really listened to the album, so I have no true opinion, but I think it’s pretty groundbreaking, considering it stands as the first Album of the Year to be completely in Spanish. Plus, this past Sunday, he performed an incredible half-time show for Super Bowl LX. This too was historic: it was the first ever half-time show to be completely in Spanish (minus the quick yet brilliant Lady Gaga appearance). While I don’t know much about him, I would rate my satisfaction with his trailblazing win as a seven out of ten.

 

Record of the Year

The Record of the Year is given to the singer and their entire production team for a singular song. This year’s nominations comprised of “DtMF” by Bad Bunny, “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter (my GOAT), “Anxiety” by Doechii, “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish, “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga, “luther” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, “The Subway” by Chappell Roan, and “APT.” by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars.

Now, unlike the previous award, I am very familiar with these nominations (to be fair, I think it’s easier to listen to just one song compared to a 40-minute album). 

Some of my favorites from this list include “luther,” “The Subway,” and “WILDFLOWER,” since they’re a bit calmer, have good vocals, and are songs that I consistently come back to.

As everyone waited with bated breaths for the winner, Cher, the announcer, broke the silent anticipatory tension by mistakenly believing that the winner would be on the teleprompter instead of the envelope in her hand (to be fair, it seemed many announcers had trouble with the teleprompter—take Chappell Roan, who was squinting harder than I do when I don’t have my contacts in). All in good taste though, as eventually, “luther” was announced to be the Record of the Year (Cher, bless her, also mistakenly called the name “Luther Vandross,” before correcting herself by saying “Kendrick Lamar”)! Since it was one of my favorites of the list, I was excited—especially as they gave a rightful nod to their muse, “the late, great Luther Vandross,” who is sampled in the track. Overall, since this was one of my top picks, I would rate this selection as a nine out of 10 (it’s also boosted because of Cher).

  

Song of the Year

The Song of the Year is given to the songwriter of a song. This year’s nominations include “Abracadabra” performed by Lady Gaga; “Anxiety” performed by Doechii; “APT.” performed by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars; “DtMF” performed by Bad Bunny; “Golden [From ‘KPop Demon Hunters’]” performed by HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nina, REI AMI; “luther” performed by Kendrick Lamar and SZA; “Manchild” performed by Sabrina Carpenter and “WILDFLOWER” performed by Billie Eilish.

I really like the distinction between the awards Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It’s nice that song-writing itself is something important in pop culture. Now, some of these songs I think have some great writing involved—others, not so much. “WILDFLOWER”? Beautiful. “Manchild”? Not really. I mean, I know that’s the appeal of “Manchild,” but I know Sabrina can write better than that. 

Presented by Carole King, the Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish and FINNEAS (her equally-talented brother who works behind the scenes). I am quite glad that “WILDFLOWER” won. It’s a great song, with great lyrics and ever greater vocals: “YOU SAY NO ONE KNOWS YOU SO WELL/BUT EVERY TIME YOU TOUCH ME, I JUST WONDER HOW SHE FELT” (the lyrics are stylized to scream at the reader in all-caps—it wasn’t my choice). This is a 10 out of 10 for me.

 

Best New Artist 

Best New Artist is given to—no surprise here—the best new artist; however, this doesn’t necessarily mean the first year they release music, but instead when they reach mainstream audiences—a nice distinction considering that many artists don’t become popular until years into their career (take the up-and-coming Zara Larson, for example). This year’s nominees were Olivia Dean, KATSEYE, The Marías, Addison Rae, sombr, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren, and Lola Young. 

This award was what I most looked forward to: new artists promote new perspectives by introducing fresh perspectives and personality to the music industry. Plus, I think it’s interesting to see how these new artists will do in the future. Just think, last year’s Best New Artist, Chappell Roan, was nominated for Record of the Year this year! Many show great promise: Olivia Dean and Lola Young with their strong voices, and KATSEYE with their trendy pop songs. Leon Thomas and Alex Warren even caught my eye as strong contenders with their songs “MUTT” and “Ordinary,” respectively—I liked the instrumentals for both.

Each of the Best New Artists also performed in a small portion of the show, which I thought was highly enjoyable. Especially since all of the nominees were powerhouses in the music industry, I found myself a little more engaged when they were performing. I personally enjoyed singing along with Olivia Dean’s performance of “Man I Need” and KATSEYE’s performance of “Gnarly.”

I also just may have been a little more biased since Olivia Dean and KATSEYE are some of my favorite artists/groups to listen to. Totally opposite vibes—for example, “So Easy (To Fall In Love)” is to “M.I.A” as a mouse is to a lion—but both have wonderful songs. 

So, imagine my joy when Olivia Dean broke into happy tears and walked up the stage to receive her first ever Grammy! In her speech she thanked her manager, and acknowledged her immigrant grandparents as drivers of her success. This too, is a 10 out of 10—Olivia Dean truly deserved the award.

 

Live Performances

A mix of polite, slow, and the occasional excited clap from Billie Eilish seemed to be the theme of the live performances. While some performances glowed, such as Sabrina Carpenter’s airline-themed performance of “Manchild”; KATSEYE’s energetic performance of “Gnarly”; the smooth performance of Alex Warren (despite his backing track issues) and the joyous performance of Olivia Dean, others, like Addison Rae’s breathy rendition of “Fame is a Gun”; ROSÉ’s and Bruno Mars’ rendition of “APT.”; and “Yukon” by Justin Bieber sadly fell short. 

 

Politics

Now, I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the elephant-in-the-room. Besides the large number of music stars wearing “ICE out” pins, including Billie Eilish, Kehlani, and Justin Bieber, winners took to the stage to protest. Many artists forgoed the typical “thank you so much, I don’t deserve it” acceptance speech for a 30-or-so second speech about their views on ICE. Bad Bunny spoke up, saying, “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans,” as he accepted a Grammy—a triumph considering President Donald Trump’s previous pushback against the Puerto Rican-American singer. Billie Eilish said that “no one is illegal on stolen land,” while SZA reminded viewers that despite the state of the country right now, “We can go on.”

Yet even beyond that, Trevor Noah, who hosted the Grammys for the final time this year, threw shade on Trump a lot—including a joke that referenced the president’s former connection to Jeffrey Epstein.

While I’m sure previous Grammys were semi-political, it seemed that this one was the most in a while. In my case, I wasn’t entirely expecting it—in retrospect, I probably should have—and because of that, I was a little blindsided by the protests and polarizing jokes. I still think it worked well, especially since it allowed artists to utilize their right to freedom of speech and speak out for what they believe in. 

 

Final Thoughts

I have another small confession to make: I didn’t watch the Grammys live. I watched it about two hours later after it started, and because I recorded it, I was able to skip through the commercials and all the things I deemed unnecessary to watch (it was 11 P.M. and I wanted to go to sleep—sue me).

Even though I skipped through some of the commercials and the interviews, it still felt way too long to be engaging throughout. Maybe I have a really bad attention span, but at some points, I was just bored.

Well, at least I’m not a philistine anymore…right?